Marc Thomas

Hi @amolrajan the right to buy and housing crisis problem in one graph; social housing construction stopped dead in its tracks during Thatcher's first term, the private sector did not provide an alternative. Figures for dwelling completions from gov.uk in 2019.

@ABDfishMKT @BobFromAccounts Floral St fortunately has a much wider pavement on the other side

@BobFromAccounts I’m slightly worried that if these bollards make it more difficult for wheelchairs and strollers to use the smoother part of the pavement. Maybe moving them outwards next to the drain channel makes things better.

Bollard Glow Up. No point in making them shy and retiring as drivers will still crash into them

Politicians are failing us abysmally on the #ClimateCrisis. Can comedians step up and save the day? Watch the heroic Jo Brand give it a proper shot with scientist @ProfMarkMaslin 🔥 If this doesn't prompt revolution, what will? Please share far and wide! #NoNewOil #COP28

For those on social media obsessed with shouty point scoring:

Suella Braverman is wrong. Multiculturalism isn’t the problem. But we know what the problem is… #bbcqt

@MhehedZherting google.com/amp/s/amp.abc.…

The felling of a tree has received a lot of attention today ... Strangely, the felling of 16,000,000 trees a little further north didn't attract quite the same amount of angst from enviros. Can anyone think why that might be?

@Ralph_Grabowski I've walked that wonderful stretch of Hadrian's Wall. The Sycamore Gap tree was beautiful and very photogenic, but on reflection highlighted the absence of millions of other trees formerly present on Britain's uplands.

@Ralph_Grabowski They are commercial plantations harvested for timber over 20 years, meanwhile 270 new trees were planted over the same period abc.net.au/news/2022-08-1…

Some trees are more equal than other trees.

@markmiodownik They might make more impact with a buy-back for reuse scheme aimed at people who don't have the storage space or inclination to keep their Lego for the next generation.

Lego abandon plan to use recycled drinks bottles for their bricks to the vast unsurprise of the materials science community theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2…

'Right to Buy' and the Tory anathema to social provision broke Britain's housing. The market did not provide enough new houses. Too much of what it did and does provide is of low quality.

And if anyone complains about the RSPB spending public money on tweets criticising government inaction on river pollution I'll gladly ask @RSPBEngland to ringfence my subscription for that purpose.

Wanting our rivers to be clean is hardly a controversial thing to expect!

Also...

When people say they won't do something, then a short while later do that very thing, what else can you call them?

I don’t like this sort of politics. Societies are made up of individuals with different backgrounds, opinions, economic interests and moral and philosophical positions. The primary job of politicians in my view is to at least try to navigate these differences (guided of course by their own hopefully well-thought out political philosophy) with the aim of building a stable consensus - a necessary foundation for a well-functioning and prosperous society. That’s very hard of course, but it should be the desired destination. Nobody gets everything they want in a democracy, because a free society is a collection of individuals who hold different views, but also nobody should feel absolutely defeated. This is not compromise in a wish-washy sense of the word - it’s the very essence of and indeed the guarantor of our freedom as individuals. As Feynman memorably said, democracy is based, like science, on a satisfactory philosophy of ignorance; running societies is very hard, and nobody really knows how to do it, so we regularly change direction whilst building on the achievements of the past. Understanding this requires humility, and the instinct to unify rather than to divide. Seeking division therefore runs counter to everyone’s interests because it undermines a key idea underpinning democracy itself - the idea that individuals have legitimately differing views. To Mr Sunak - topically - I would say read some post-war Oppenheimer. He was aiming to persuade national leaders not to do what this article says you want to do, because in the context of countries with atom bombs, that would be literally playing with fire.

"A harmonized measurement system is one of humanity’s greatest achievements and for any government to promote a return to the old ways is foolishness beyond measure" ow.ly/Ymyc50Ou9CC

@castelm11 @gavinesler But everyone in the UK who measures anything that really matters, i.e. industry, healthcare, transportation, construction, etc. uses metric.

I'll be joining the UK Metric Association conference to counter the nonsensical idea of returning to ancient weights and measures - the weaponised nostalgia much loved by Mr Rees-Mogg & others. Join us - ukma.org.uk/about/membersh…

The tech is ready, you just have to care enough to want to join the dots and use it!

Man who doesn’t know where he is and doesn’t know who he is with, is telling you to vote Conservative anyway because that’s why he is Foreign Secretary. Apparently. Or something. #theythinkweareallidiots

Data visualisation helps us to understand the world, and in the case of the #ClimateStripes, helps us understand #ClimateChange. Explore five graphs that changed the world with @AdamRutherford and @bbcideas: #EarthDay